At Chaudhry Bansi Lal Cricket: The first round of the Ranji Trophy 2023/24 came to an end, with former champions Vidarbha, Gujarat, Karnataka and Mumbai securing victories. But seven-time winners Delhi faced a new low in their history of the tournament after losing to Pondicherry by nine wickets at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi.Elite Group A
Opener Sanjay Raghunath slammed an unbeaten 84 to help Vidarbha complete a seven-wicket win over Services at the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) Stadium in Civil Lines, Nagpur.
At Indira Gandhi Stadium in Solapur, Maharashtra began on a rousing note by thrashing Manipur by an innings and 69 runs, with Ankeet Bawane’s 153 getting him Player of the Match award.
At Chaudhry Bansi Lal Cricket Stadium, Lahli, the match between Haryana and Rajasthan came to a draw, with the hosts’ first innings left unfinished at 100/6 in 42 overs as bad light and fog became constants.
At Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot, Kumar Suraj’s unbeaten 113 and Kumar Deobrat’s 91 helped Jharkhand secure a draw against current cup holders Saurashtra.
Jharkhand made 306/3 in 109 overs in their second innings when a draw was called. Saurashtra took three points based on first innings lead by making 578/4 declared, with Cheteshwar Pujara being unbeaten on 243, after bowling out Jharkhand for 142 in their first innings.
Elite Group B
At Moin-ul-Haq Stadium in Patna, Mumbai hammered Bihar by an innings and 51 runs. After Mumbai made 251, Bihar were bowled out for 100 in their first innings and were bundled out for the very same total. Shivam Dube and Royston Dias starred with deadly spells of 4/18 and 3/35 for Mumbai.
At the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh took three points on the basis of the first innings lead after a draw against Bengal. Bengal managed to post 409 in their first innings, thanks to good batting by Anustup Majumdar (125), Sourav Paul and Abishek Porel (70).
In reply, a superb 175 by Ricky Bhui helped Andhra go past Bengal’s first-innings total to score 445 on the final day and grab the all-important first-innings lead. Bengal, in their second innings, were 82/1 when the match was called into a draw.
At the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur, Assam’s Riyan Parag hit 155 off 87 balls, reaching his century in 56 balls, the second-fastest in Ranji Trophy history, with the help of 11 fours and 12 sixes. But it went in vain as Chhattisgarh won by ten wickets and even got a bonus point of an outright win.
At the Sanatana Dharma College Ground in Alappuzha, 115 from captain Aryan Juyal and 106 from Priyam Garg took Uttar Pradesh to 323/3 declared in the second innings. In reply, Kerala managed to hold on to a draw, reaching 72/2 by the time the match came to an end, with Uttar Pradesh getting three points due to first innings lead.
Elite Group C
At MBB Stadium in Agartala, KV Siddharth waged a lone battle with 151 as the lone notable batting contribution for Goa in their second innings, but they were bowled out for 263, as Tripura took a massive 237-run victory.
At Sardar Patel Stadium in Valsad, Gujarat’s fast-bowlers, left-arm pacer Arzan Nagwaswalla and skipper Chintan Gaja bowled impressive spells of 4/34 and 3/34 respectively to secure a thumping 111-run win over Tamil Nadu, who were bowled out for 187 in the pursuit of chasing 299.
At KSCA Stadium in Hubli, Prabhsimran Singh made 100 while Abhishek Sharma slammed 91 as Punjab made 412 in a much-improved batting performance in the second innings, with Karnataka’s Rohit Kumar and Shubhang Hegde taking 3/101 and 3/89 respectively. But Karnataka managed to get a seven-wicket win, though they lost three wickets in their way of acing the chase.
At Cricket Stadium, Sector-16, Chandigarh, Railways took first innings lead over Chandigarh, thanks to Vivek Singh making 114, Mohammad Saif being 58 not out
Elite Group D
At the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Pondicherry made short work of Delhi to claim a nine-wicket victory, which is just its second win in the elite format of the competition. Pacers Gourav Yadav and Abin Mathew took only 6.4 overs to take out the last two Delhi wickets and bowl the hosts’ out for 145.
Mathew, who triggered a Delhi collapse in the second innings on day three, took a five-wicket haul. Chasing a paltry 49, openers Akash Kargave and Jay Pande added 44 runs for the opening wicket, though the former fell later to Himanshu Chauhan, Pondicherry eventually reached the target with ease.
At Motibaug Cricket Ground, Vadodara, Mahesh Pithiya’s five-fer helped Baroda bowl out Odisha for 284 and secure a massive 147-run victory. At Hostel Ground JKCA in Jammu, Himachal Pradesh took the first innings lead over Jammu & Kashmir, despite bad light hampering the game hugely. At Abhimanyu Cricket Academy in Dehradun, Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh took first innings lead over Uttarakhand.
Plate Group
At Gokulbhai Somabhai Patel Stadium in Nadiad, Mohit Jangra made 126 off 124 balls and even picked up a four-wicket haul in the final innings of the match. But Sikkim managed to secure a four-wicket win thanks to knocks of 60 and 76 from Ashish Thapa and Sumit Singh respectively.
At Nagaland Cricket Stadium in Sovima, Hyderabad won by an innings and 194 runs, thanks to a mammoth 214 from Rahul Singh, along with crucial knocks from Tanmay Agarwal (80) and captain Tilak Varma (100 not out), apart from Chama Milind and Tanay Thyagarajan being amongst the wickets.
At Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium in Anand, Meghalaya won by an innings and 172 runs over Nagaland, thanks to 268 from Kishan Lyndoh and 132 from Ram, with bowler Dippu having a match haul of nine wickets.
